1. Competitive Intel: Using
Insights To Drive Strategy
Susan Wenograd
Partner & SEM – Five Mill
Susan.Wenograd@fivemill.com

2. Who Am I?
#pubcon @SusanEDub
• Partner at Five Mill. Made up of
paid search pros with avg. of 10
years experience.
• Specialize in medium-to-large
scale paid search accounts.
• Live in Virginia with my husband
and this cutie.

3. Competitive Intel Value
#pubcon @SusanEDub
• Things change: new competitors, new bids, new ad copy, new
products, new searchers…you get the idea.
• Down with being complacent!
• Seasonal trends.
• Mobile trends.
• 30,000 foot view.

4. Please!
#pubcon @SusanEDub
• Don’t do it obsessively!
• Launching new accounts
• Launching new campaign themes
• Monitoring patterns quarterly-ish

5. Where Are Auction Insights?
#pubcon @SusanEDub

6. What Does It Show Me?
#pubcon @SusanEDub
• Your average position vs. competition
• Overlap rate: How often you show and their ad shows
• Position above rate: How often competitor’s ad is shown higher than
yours when you both appear
• Top of page rate: How often you show above the organic results
• Outranking share: How often your ad ranked higher OR showed when a
competitor’s ad didn’t.

7. What It Looks Like
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Competitor
Competitor
Competitor
Competitor
Competitor
Competitor
Sometimes these will surprise you

8. But That’s Only Part of the Story
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Richness lies in understanding your
performance on Mobile, and performance
at different times of year.

9. Mobile Can Look Different
#pubcon @SusanEDub

10. Get Out of the Interface & Into
Excel
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Export & Pivot!
Domain Q1 2016 Q2 2016
Competitor 1 5.7 5.6
Competitor 2 5.1 5.0
Competitor 3 4.5 4.7
Competitor 4 4.7 4.7
Competitor 5 4.7 3.7
Competitor 6 4.0 3.6
Competitor 8 3.3 2.9
Competitor 9 3.1 2.8
Competitor 10 3.9 2.8
Competitor 11 2.2 2.3
You 2.2 2.1
Check out who’s on the
move.
Make a note & then
check in SEMRush.

11. Get Out of the Interface & Into
Excel
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Export & Pivot!
Day of the Week capella.edu You
Sunday 12.1% 21.6%
Monday 12.4% 21.0%
Tuesday 13.4% 21.8%
Wednesday 11.7% 20.1%
Thursday 11.8% 19.3%
Friday 12.1% 21.0%
Saturday 11.1% 21.6%

12. Check for Account Growth
#pubcon @SusanEDub

13. Check for Increased Budgets
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Export this competitor’s keywords, and de-duplicate against your
own to find untapped keyword opportunities.

14. Find Seasonal Wins &
Weaknesses
#pubcon @SusanEDub

15. Find Seasonal Wins &
Weaknesses
#pubcon @SusanEDub

16. Note YoY Trends
#pubcon @SusanEDub
These can be helpful in planning your projections!

17. …But Know If There’s a Reason
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Month Sum of Revenue/Cost
1/1/2015 1.37
2/1/2015 0.96
3/1/2015 1.88
4/1/2015 2.26
5/1/2015 1.91
6/1/2015 2.34
7/1/2015 1.77
8/1/2015 2.11
9/1/2015 2.14
10/1/2015 2.77
11/1/2015 2.45
12/1/2015 2.00
1/1/2016 3.16
2/1/2016 2.53
3/1/2016 5.18
4/1/2016 4.73

18. Competitive Ad Copy
#pubcon @SusanEDub
• Competitor ad copy and history
• Note sales cycles
• Note free offers – 50% off? Free trials?

19. Doing Shopping? Great.
#pubcon @SusanEDub

20. Doing Shopping? Great.
#pubcon @SusanEDub

21. Doing Shopping? Great.
#pubcon @SusanEDub

22. Doing Shopping? Great.
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Check out strategy over time to help you gauge if competitor is
shifting towards becoming Shopping-heavier.

23. Quarterly Checks
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Competitive ad copy
Spend trends – are competitors growing and
spending more?
Keyword volume trends
Mobile trends – yours and theirs!
Seasonal performance for peak times

24. Strategic Checks
#pubcon @SusanEDub
Pull competitor keywords. Merge into an Excel sheet
with your terms and de-duplicate to find keyword
opportunities.
Check imagery and product descriptions on
Shopping
Pull ad copy for year & look for sales cycles

25. Thanks For Coming!
Susan Wenograd
Partner & SEM – Five Mill
Susan.Wenograd@fivemill.com